Felix Finkbeiner founded the initiative Plant-for-the-Planet in 2007 at the age of nine. While researching a school presentation on the climate crisis, he came across Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai. Together with other women in Kenya, she had planted more than 30 million trees. Her story inspired Felix to believe that children in every country around the world could plant one million trees. Only a few weeks after his presentation, he planted the first tree in front of his school. Local journalists took notice, and soon other schools joined the tree-planting efforts. This marked the beginning of Plant-for-the-Planet.
At the age of 13, Felix addressed the United Nations General Assembly. In 2012, he launched The Change Chocolate, through which more than 10 million trees have since been planted. What began with the planting of a single tree has grown into an internationally active organization present in 11 countries. He holds a degree in International Relations and was awarded the Federal Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Today, he leads two teams within Plant-for-the-Planet. As Head of Restoration and Conservation, he is responsible for the strategic development of restoration projects and the organization’s restoration platform. In addition, he leads the Public Policy and Advocacy team, which focuses on national and international mechanisms to protect tropical forests, such as the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The team also created the transparency platform tfffwatch.com, which tracks investments and developments related to the TFFF.

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